| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立屏東科技大學 === 獸醫學系所 === 100 === In this study, microbiological isolation and identification was conducted to monitor the physical status and investigate related diseases in beluga whales and penguins domesticated in National Museum of Marine Biology &; Aquarium from May 2008 to October 2010. A total of 110 swabs were collected from the oral wound, throat, thyroid, sputum, fumarole, reproductive cavity and anus of 8 beluga whales and also from the oral cavity and cloacae of 46 penguins. Bacterial strains were isolated on blood agar and MacConkey agar and then initially identified using colony morphology, Gram’s stain, oxidase test, catalase test and oxidation-fermentation test. API bacterial identification system was used to further verify the bacterial strains in the samples. As a result, a total of 35 strains were identified in beluga whales. The order of most frequently identified strain isolated from the fumarole of beluga whales was Shewanella putrefaciens（16%, 7/42）, Aeromonas hydrophila（10％, 4/42）and Morganella morganii（10％, 4/42）while in the beluga whale anus Escherichia coli（33％, 20/60）was accounted as the most isolated strain, followed by Proteus mirabilis（17%, 10/60）and Vibrio parahaemolyticus（7％, 4/60）. After the event of Typhoon Fanapi 2009, the important point to note is that Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was isolated from the thyroid gland in one of the 2 sudden death cases of beluga whale as Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterobacter cloacae and Providencia alcalifaciens were isolated from the throat of the departed beluga whale. Also, from oral cavities of penguins 22 different bacterial strains were successfully isolated, in which Kocuria kristicae accounted for the most（22％, 8/37）, followed by Micrococcus spp.（14％, 5/37）and Staphylococcus sciuri（11％, 4/37）. The cloacae penguin identification showed that Kocuria rosea（19％, 3/16）and Staphylococcus sciuri（13%, 2/16） were present most often. The antimicrobial susceptibility data displayed that all strains isolated from beluga whales were susceptible to amikacin and imipenem 2 whereas resistant to lincomycin and azithromycin. On the other hand, all strains isolated from the penguin were sensitive to lincomycin and azithromycin 2 but resistant to ciprofloxacin and imipenem. The results in the current study provide essential information on clinical diagnosis and disease prevention for domesticated beluga whales and penguins in Taiwan.
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